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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26618488">cruel reflections</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/chibeesweet/pseuds/chibeesweet'>chibeesweet</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>No Straight Roads (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>-to myself- and they were roomates, Blood and Injury, F/M, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Light Swearing, anyway this is kinda sad the things i write for this fandom, love you guys xoxo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 06:00:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,129</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26618488</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/chibeesweet/pseuds/chibeesweet</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>__</p><p>Looking left to right, she finds no sign of her bandmate, by herself in a weird twisted painting of her own. It makes her heart sink, eyes going wide as she paces in a small circle, like he’d show up if she looked harder.</p><p>“Zuke, where are you?!” Mayday shouts to the mostly empty room. She swears all those hands are alive, waiting to grab her. A shiver crawls down her spine.</p><p>The only response she gets is silence, air.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Mayday/Zuke (No Straight Roads)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>112</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>cruel reflections</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>uhhhh hi gamers</p><p>i originally had an idea because mayday sounds a little scared and i was curious on how it would go which way without zuke's confirmation that eve's just like this. </p><p>it's got some blood in it? but it's not described. i try to describe the injuries as loosely as possible in here so i hope it's still readable. </p><p>anyway. this is for the zukemay discord love those guys</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><br/><br/><br/>She blinks and she’s somewhere else. <br/><br/>“Woah, what’s going on here?”<br/><br/>Walls darkened deep pink, hands bigger than herself protruding from every angle above her head, the occasional art piece hanging from the slanted walls. It makes her clutch her guitar in reflex, holding it close to her, and yet still keeping her fingers on the strings.<br/><br/>Looking left to right, she finds no sign of her bandmate, by herself in a weird twisted painting of her own. It makes her heart sink, eyes going wide as she paces in a small circle, like he’d show up if she looked harder. <br/><br/>“Zuke, where are you?!” Mayday shouts to the mostly empty room. She swears all those hands are alive, waiting to grab her. A shiver crawls down her spine.<br/><br/>The only response she gets is silence, air. What she would give to have a comforting response. He always knew what to say. Instead what she gets is her heart racing in her ears, lungs struggling to take in air. She knows she’s panicking- not the same kind of giddy panic she’d gotten before the audition, this one feels cold, unforgiving. The room feels like an ice box as she drops a hand from her guitar to pull her bangs back, taking a deep breath. <br/><br/>“It’s fine, you’re fine, breathe.” She reminds herself under her breath, counting down from 5 mentally and trying to focus on something in the room- which ends up being a mistake, as her eyes zero in on the hands that *feel* closer to her, like the whole room is closing up. <br/><br/>Cursing under her breath, Mayday grabs her guitar tightly by the neck with both hands, making the instrument shake with her nerves. She’s cut out for this, she deserves it- she’ll make this her stage, not Eve’s. She just wishes she could breathe easier.<br/><br/>Raising her guitar, she shouts a battle cry and heads forward.<br/><br/>--------<br/><br/>When the room changes, Zuke’s hardly bothered, looking upward with a small frown. The room is bright, almost blindingly so, probably to draw attention to the colorful artwork. He just swears the room wasn’t this bright before.<br/><br/>And then it hits him- Mayday’s nowhere to be found. <br/><br/>Looking around in a slightly frantic manner, he doubts he’d be this scared if it weren’t for the fact that they’d been split apart. It’s like a void filled with empty static without her in the room.<br/><br/>“May?” Zuke calls out, looking around with a crease in his eyebrows. “Are you there?”<br/><br/>There’s no response, no confirmation. It’s worrying for sure, but part of him knows she can handle herself. It’s hard to play without her riffs to accompany the sound, especially that the only sound he’s getting is dead silence, but he can make it work. He wonders briefly what could have motivated Nadia to split them apart. It does make sense, considering they’re stronger as a duo- but it still makes him pause in thought for a moment. <br/><br/>He shrugs it off in order to keep playing as he was. If anyone could last against Nadia, he knows May can. <br/><br/><br/>------ <br/><br/>She can’t. <br/><br/>Her hair’s escaped her braids, sticking to the side of her face- May pushes it away with the palm of her hand, breathing in and out to the noise of her own loud heart. Her guitar lays in her other hand, dangling by the neck and almost touching the floor. <br/><br/>She’s tried to play, she’s always done it before perfectly fine, no stage fright to be seen. But somehow this feels worse. Even playing a tune to no audience, she feels like there’s eyes on her. The hands never stop showing up, no end in sight, and she’s already been tossed to the wall twice. If she was smarter, she’d think Eve was trying to kill her.<br/><br/>Jumping out of the way to avoid another large hand coming in her direction, she rolls slightly to break her fall and gets back up in a rush. She has no idea how much longer she’ll last, and at this rate, not very long. <br/><br/>“Zuke?” May calls, as if invoking his name will make him appear. The air is silent, driving a shard through her hope like someone was playing darts with her emotions.<br/><br/><br/>“He can’t hear you.”<br/><br/><br/>The voice sends a chill to her again, looking around the room to find the source of the artist talking to her. <br/><br/><br/>“Eve?” May snarls, trying to keep the confusion out of her voice. “Get out here and face me yourself! Can you only take one at a time? Is that it?” <br/><br/>A slight chuckle comes from the left and May reflexively swings her guitar in that direction with a shout, only to make contact with the air.<br/><br/><br/>“You’re hardly worth the effort.” The voice comes from behind her this time, and Mayday turns on her heels and swings. Nothing connects. <br/><br/><br/>May’s brain is spinning and for some reason, she feels like she could cry, the expression on her face a mixture of anger and panic. <br/><br/>“Everything will be fine once you are removed from the picture.” The voice has a body now, standing on the long end of the room and extending her hands to form a frame. “This foolish quest will end, and all will be forgiven.” <br/><br/>“If you do that, he’ll never come back to you.” Mayday spits, looking at the artist with anger burning through her. “We started this together and we’re going to finish it together!” <br/><br/>Eve’s face does not change at her words, she only steps forward. “You are just as naive as you are disappointing.” She mentions with no tone to her voice, seemingly bored with the action. “His silly… infatuation, with you. It will disappear, as all things do. It will disappear with you.” <br/><br/>Raising her hands, Eve pulls them together in a strict order, and her gallery obeys. Mayday can only react for a second before she’s thrown like a ragdoll, one of the large hands tossing her to the side with a cry of pain. Again and again, she’s tossed, knocked down, defeated. Yet, to Eve’s dismay, she gets up again every time, gripping her instrument like her life depended on it. She’s already broken a string. She has to keep going.<br/><br/>“If you want me to abandon my best friend, you must be out of your damn mind.” Mayday breathes out, narrowing her starry eyes at the woman, face wet with tears.<br/><br/>“In the end, he will abandon you, pedestrian girl.” <br/><br/>-------<br/><br/>Zuke’s worry reaches a tipping point when the attacks stop coming. While he’d avoided being stomped nearly half a dozen times, there was still no sign of Nadia- and worse, no sign of May. <br/><br/>Glancing towards the end of the room, he realizes abruptly that the reflection in the mirror was incorrect. It shone more like glass, the clarity immaculate, but the reflection was bright pink and noisy. Things were still moving- it couldn’t be right, could it? <br/><br/>Running over to the looking glass, he trips over himself getting a closer look at the reflection- only for his hope to sink like a stone, breath caught in his throat. This wasn’t a reflection. It was a window into the split room. <br/><br/>Nadia held no expression on the outside, but he could tell she was pissed. He didn’t want to think about how Mayday looked fighting back- in their years of knowing each other, she’d never looked so defeated. Even through this, she held her instrument like a knight would a sword, standing as tall as possible in her current state. <br/><br/>Zuke reflexively puts his hands on the glass, as if it would grant him entrance to help her, to do anything. He felt powerless to do anything, and in truth, he was. He’s terrified for her safety, her well being. If you asked if he was in love, he’d say no every time, but a face would always come to mind. He didn’t like the way his stomach turned looking at her fresh bruises.<br/><br/>Something catches Nadia’s attention, and she turns, lowering her hands; only to make direct eye contact with him, an unreadable emotion crossing her face. It makes her nose recoil and her eyes narrow. Jealousy.<br/><br/>Without taking her eyes off him, she reaches over to touch the surface of the mirrored glass. It cracks under her gesture, leaving his view splintered and incomplete- until it breaks entirely, leaving him alone in the room again. He shouts, crying out as he pounds on the broken glass. <br/><br/>“Damnit! Eve, let her go!” Zuke cries, to an empty room. It reaches nobody’s ears. <br/><br/>-------</p><p>All she understands is that she hurts. Part of her only registers the pain, eyes blurred and fluttering as she struggles to keep her breathing under control. It’s hard to tell where the pain begins and where it ends. Looking down to her instrument, it wavers in her vision, but she’s desperate. Raising an arm, she throws it as hard as she can in the artists’ direction. It misses and hits the end of the hall, putting a crack in the mirror she hadn’t noticed. <br/><br/>She’s not sure when she hit the floor, or if she registered the sound of her guitar making contact, glass shattering, the voice shouting her name. <br/><br/>Vaguely, she understands she’s lost. She’s tired, defeated, and empty. <br/><br/>Closing her eyes doesn’t sound like such a bad idea. <br/><br/>------- <br/><br/>It’s ages before the mirror crumples to the ground, an air of relief almost gathering in his mind- until he sees the source of the shatter, a brightly colored guitar with three broken strings, the painted decals scratched and worn. He reaches down to pick it up with panicked movements, inspecting if it’s beyond salvaging. <br/><br/>It only gets worse when he follows the trail of where it came from with his eyes, freezing in his tracks. <br/><br/>“May!” He shouts, dropping the discarded instrument and runs for the small frame curled up on the floor, falling to his knees next to her. He doesn’t know if he should touch her, his brain spinning at a million miles a minute, unable to form any words. <br/><br/>Eventually, he decides on supporting her, winding an arm behind her head and pulling her upright. Her head falls back over his arm, eyes closed and breathing shallow through her lips that are stained red with something he doesn’t want to think about. Moving carefully, he hooks his free arm under her knees and lifts her with him when he stands- he’s taken aback at how easy it actually is to carry her. He reminds himself also not to think about that, it’s not the time. <br/><br/>Feeling how fragile she is, he takes a second look at her, his blood going cold as he finally takes in what’s wrong. Her arms are bruised to hell and back, impacts that leave a horrible purple contrast to her usual orange hue. He might be sick if he looks any more than that, so he moves, freeing up one of his arms to pick up her broken guitar, fleeing the gallery without a second word. He just wants to get out of there.<br/><br/>------ <br/><br/>When her eyes open, she has to close them again because of the sudden pain, a sigh escaping her as she composes herself. When she opens them again, she realizes she’s staring at the ceiling of the bunk bed, leaving her confused- isn’t this Zuke’s bunk? <br/><br/>Remembering abruptly what happened in a swift rush, she sits up fast in bed with a gasp, hurting her aching ribcage, but hardly caring as she clutches the blankets to her chest. She registers things one by one- the bandages covering her hands, the feeling of her hair on her neck, the dim lights in the room. As soon as she feels collected, she also notices something else. Zuke isn’t here. <br/><br/>A brief wave of panic goes over her as she pulls on her hair, looking at the floor. What if he’d actually left? He couldn’t have just sided with her after all this, right? Was she alone? Was this for <em>nothing?</em> She can’t help the small involuntary sob that leaves her, snapping one of her hands over her mouth. <br/><br/>Her commotion must have caught some attention, because the movement in the corner of her eye makes her snap her attention to the entrance of the room, ready to shout an expletive to get them to leave- until she notices that the eyes facing hers are red, and comforting. It’s what she was missing. <br/><br/>He’s hardly able to pull in a breath in preparation to speak before she’s throwing herself at him, wrapping her arms around him in as tight of a hug as she can, hiding her face in the embrace. It catches Zuke off guard, but within seconds he’s returned it, and she feels the weight of his head resting on hers, a comfort that makes her eyes water where they’re buried. Vaguely, she knows he’s holding her in such a tender and careful way- but still tight, like he missed her. There’s something else there, but she can’t put her finger on it. <br/><br/></p><p>“You’re okay.” He sighs, and May’s surprised how close he sounds to tears. She’s never heard him so upset, not since… well, forever. </p><p> </p><p>Pulling her head back, she looks up to meet his gaze, refusing to leave his personal space. Her hair is still messy, tangled in certain places, a gauze bandage on the underside of her chin- but Zuke hardly seems to care. The way he’d picked her up after that fight, defeated and thrown away, it terrified him more than he cared to admit. Just thinking about it brought a slight jade blush to his face, the way his heart felt, the words he’d whispered under his breath. He registers that May is staring at him, looking back down to find her starry eyes twisted in concern. </p><p> </p><p>“I can pretty much see you thinking, Zuke.” Mayday mumbles, her voice a little weak from screaming, but still with a teasing edge to it. He laughs under his breath, glad that a rough encounter hasn’t changed her at all. </p><p> </p><p>“Yeah, I- There’s a lot to think about.” He responds, moving his hand from the hug to rest it on the back of his neck. </p><p> </p><p>Mayday pouts a little at him when he deflects it, and god, how badly he just wants to kiss it away from her face. He realizes how that sounds in his head, and mentally scolds himself- but a part of him wonders if he keeps quiet, if he’d ever have a chance to think about it again. He’s scared that if not now, that it’ll never happen. </p><p> </p><p>Zuke avoids her gaze, looking to the left and trying to think. He startles slightly when May snaps her fingers in front of his face, giving him a slight glare. </p><p> </p><p>“Now, I dunno what you’re thinking about, but you’re overdoing it.” She grumbles, giving him a look that’s more concerned than annoyed. “Whatever it is, I won’t be upset. Promise.”</p><p> </p><p>She’s taken by surprise as he leans into her personal space faster than she could keep up with, pressing his lips to her own in a gesture that left her spinning. It’s done faster than it lasts, and she’s aware of how stupid she probably looks standing there, her mouth slightly open in shock. </p><p> </p><p>Zuke looks at her with concern as she freezes up, and he notices her hands have gone still. His brain spirals into doubt- <em>'idiot, you shouldn’t be kissing her after you’ve both almost died a bunch, she just woke up after the longest power nap ever.’</em> He watches her eyes blink repeatedly as she catches up like a failing machine. </p><p> </p><p>Just as he’s ready to pull away from her, he hears a gentle gasp as she pulls him down again, nearly knocking heads with him with her enthusiasm as she presses her lips to his firmly, pulling away after a beat. </p><p>Zuke doesn’t need a mirror- he knows he’s probably smiling like an idiot, looking down at her as she gives him a gentle smile, head tilted up in his direction. Pulling her closer, he picks her up in another hug and spins in a circle, drawing the cutest giggle from her that makes her nose scrunch up and her face a dark amber with her blush. He swears the tips of her pointed ears twitch. </p><p> </p><p>He sets her down with the intent of letting her go, but May surprises him by hardly moving, intertwining one of her hands with his. She doesn’t want to leave. More importantly, she just wants him to stay. </p><p> </p><p>Zuke’s eyebrows furrow when he watches her flinch slightly when she breathes out, the pain of their earlier battle still catching up to her. He knows there’s bruises probably in places he couldn’t help, but she doesn’t seem to care about her pain as she lays her head on him with the intention of closing her eyes. He almost laughs, and she can hear the hum of it in his chest. </p><p> </p><p>“May, no. Come on, you can’t sleep there.” He nudges her, causing her to mumble a complaint. </p><p> </p><p>“Why not?” She whines. </p><p> </p><p>“Because we’re three feet away from a perfectly good bed?” </p><p> </p><p>Opening her eyes to look behind her, she hums vaguely as she takes in the room again. “We.. sure are.” </p><p> </p><p>He doesn’t hide his laughter this time, guiding her back to the covers she’d thrown aside. She climbs beneath with no argument, her hair twisting over the pillow, an easy sigh escaping her as she settles. </p><p>A careful tug on Zuke’s hand makes it clear where she wants him to stay, and he lets her drag him into the bed with her. </p><p> </p><p>Laying on his back, he hardly has any time to adjust before she’s placing her head on his shoulder, an arm slung over him like it’s always meant to be there. Everything fits in perfectly like a puzzle, and he’s sure he must be dreaming this up, but her gentle rise and fall of her breaths against him put him at ease. </p><p> </p><p>Picking his head up, Zuke nudges her to see if she’s still awake, and she’s out like a light- already starting to drool on top of him. Laying his dreads back over the pillow, he raises a hand to pull back her hair, combing through it in a soothing gesture that doesn’t even wake her. Pulling up the blanket to rest over her shoulders more instead of his own, he settles for pressing a gentle kiss to the top of her hair before catching some well needed rest himself. </p><p> </p><p>After a beat, May smiles in her sleep. </p>
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